Making Your Own Graphs

Top design printed at 133% so I can trace it onto 18 count graph
paper to make a 24 count design to scale and fit
on the casket.

For those who want to work the Five Seasons Casket Design on a different count of linen or a different design entirely, but counted, I have pictures of the process of making a graph to share.

The first is the scaling of the design and the use of graph paper.  You need to get a set of graph paper to use.  The best is using one that is either equal or half of the linen threads/inch of your linen.  An example is 20 count graph paper for 20 or 40 count linen.  18 count graph paper for 36 count linen.  It is pretty hard to use graph paper once it is smaller than 20 count, so that is about as high as you can find.  StitchPoint has graph paper as useful counts that you can print.  

Taped together pieces of 18-count
graph paper.

So say you like my design but want to stitch it over 1 on 36 count.  Print out the 18 count paper on the site and then scale each of my designs by 200% when printing.  (36/18 = 200%).  Trace the design on the graph paper and you have the right scale.

In my case, I already had 18 count graph paper I owned and I wanted to do the lid top for the flat casket, but on 24 count graph paper.  24/18=133%.  So I printed out my top design at 133% on several sets of paper and cut and taped them together to make one large design.   I then taped it to a light table.

Graph paper over the enlarged design on a light table

I then took the 18 count paper and trimmed it and taped it together to make a large piece of graph paper.  I carefully aligned it on the design on top of a light table and taped it down.  At this point, I traced the outlines of the design on the graph paper as well as the inner grey border to find the perimeter of the design.  I will likely add 2-3 stitches to each edge to help
compensate for the skew when stitching.

Traced design on the graph paper

Once the design was traced onto the graph paper, I could start filling in the outlines of each motif on the graph paper where the traced line crossed a graph square.

You could continue like this with colored pencils, making yourself a master graph or you can enter it into a computer graphing program of your choice.

Starting to fill in the squares where the traced design crosses
a graph square.